Modern Reception to Wonder Woman

DC finally has a Wonder Woman movie in the works. Right now, its release date is set for the summer of 2017, but I’m not holding my breath. There seems to be some kind of “Wonder Woman Curse” on the loose that has prevented her from appearing in anything but comic books and fanfiction since the days of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman in the 1970s.

This article by Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter lists several instances where a movie for the iconic lady hero was in the works, but got shut down in one way or another, including the 1996 plan the 1999 plan, and the plan in 2007, where Joss Whedon left the project because the movie he wanted to produce (for which the screenplay is legendary) wasn’t the movie any of his co-producers wanted to do. Whedon, as many people know, went on to direct Marvel’s The Avengers in 2012.

There is hope, however. The number of little girls who read comic books and watch superhero TV shows and movies is rising. The animated Teen Titans that was discontinued a few years ago was suspected by many fans to have been canceled because of its large female audience (whether this is true or not, I don’t know for certain. But I was disappointed when the show was discontinued), for whom the toys were not geared toward–and (this I know for certain) the show’s executive, Paul Dini, believed that girls wouldn’t buy the toys and he and his other exec buddies didn’t want girls watching it (there was also some controversy regarding Young Justice League for this reason).

But girls are not just sitting back and letting their lady superheroes be ignored: a now famous letter written by a girl named Rowan has, perhaps at least in part, sparked DC to get its act together since they have now teamed up with Mattel to create a line of DC’s femalecharacters in doll form!

As it stands right now, an actress-model named Gal Gadot (The Fast and the Furious series) is set to play Wonder Woman in the cameo coming up in the Batman v. Superman movie, and in the standalone film coming in 2017. As for her reception, it hasn’tbeenoverlypositive. Personally? I’m not a big fan of Gadot for Wonder Woman, myself, but every time I see the negative criticism regarding her (especially the absurd comments regarding her cleavage), I feel compelled to defend her.

And, while the first promo photo of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman definitely takes a lot of new direction with the new Wonder Woman’s costume, I’m willing to hold off judgment until I see her act in a lead role instead of along the sideline.